Jin left the Celestial realm and decided a safe location away from the Incarnates would be a forest in the middle of America. He wanted to see his family but knew it would be best to lie low until he was strong enough to be able to take them all out. He was strong enough to pose a threat to them before, but it still wouldn’t be enough to kill King while he was teaming up with the others, especially if they brought their armies. He would just end up back in the Devil realm or even worse they would figure out about his necklace and strip it away before killing him.
‘Time to hold up my end of the bargain.’
Jin closed his eyes and pictured Shadow. “Return.”
Blue essence left his chest and erupted into blue flames in front of him. The light was blinding, and Jin covered his eyes.
When he lowered his hand Shadow stood in front of him looking very confused. He looked just as he did before King killed him, draped in tattered black robes with the Fallen Angels Daggers in his hands.
Shadow looked at his body where King had slashed him in the past, then he noticed Jin and waived.
Jin could tell from his eyes that underneath his mask that Shadow was smiling.
“Good to see you too buddy.”
Then Shadow did something unexpected, he sheathed his daggers and snapped his fingers, his face shifted to complete amazement. Shadow then clapped his hands and gave Jin a thumbs up.
“Wait, did you get your hearing back?”
Shadow nodded enthusiastically then attempted to speak, but nothing came out and he shrugged.
“Well, I guess that’s something at least.”
Jin then began to explain the situation to Shadow who watched Jin very attentively. When Jin explained how he fought him as a Shadow, he seemed to have no recollection of it.
“So, what do you think, want to hunt some Gods with me?”
Shadow nodded in agreement.
“Alright, get ready because there’s only one place where we can hunt without alerting them.” Jin put his hand on Shadows shoulder and teleported to the coast of Australia.
His plan was to hunt the Devils and Devil Kings there to get stronger because there was no way that the Gods would know about it since the country had become completely inhabited by Devils.
The beach they emerged on was filled with Hydro Devils that were a mix of Shark Devils and a higher level of Devils with pale green skin, octopus heads and a handful of red eyes. They were the size of Cyclops and wielded large golden tridents; their armor was nothing more than brown straps of leather and torn grey pants.
Jin had never encountered more than a few at a time, but there were dozens of these octopus heads among a hundred of the shark men.
Jin summoned his Hellfire sword, but its flame had become white. He struck a Devil with it, and they not only caught fire, but they exploded. The Goddess’s Kiss had turned this ability into a Celestial one.
While Jin took the Devils head on, Shadow disappeared and killed them while invisible and they were distracted with Jin’s flashy attacks.
But Jin saw something new happen with Shadow’s summons, they had begun to fuse with the spirits from the fallen enemies. With each Devil they killed, they gained a new ally.
These raised minions had some remnants of the bones from their bodies, but the rest of their form was made up of a living grayish black smoke and their eyes glowed blue like Jin saw in the Devil realm.
Jin continued slaying every enemy that came within his range, decapitating or impaling those he struck with his toxic sword in his right hand and completely obliterating those he struck with the Celestial sword in his left. Even the Octopus Devils with all their might die from a single blow from Jin’s sword.
Shadow saw how Jin was decimating the Devils and focused all his energy on raising more minions.
The battle was brief but brutal for the Devils that were all killed in less than half an hour and raised as Shadow’s allies.
“Shadow, come here really quick.”
Shadow reappeared and Jin handed him the God of Knowledge’ Notebook.
“Open this really quick.”
Shadow opened to the first entry that appeared to him.
Returned Blessing of the Void
Previously having traded hearing and voice for increased strength and the ability to summon the shadows, the blessing has been amplified upon being touched by the Devil Emperor then living in the Void and reawakened from a being with Celestial energy. The blessing has been enhanced to grant the ability to fuse the spirits of the dead limitlessly with the void and create ‘Fallen’, the Fallens strength will be 2/3 of its former strength. The blessed also was given the ability to turn invisible, become shrouded in armaments of living Void, and dramatically increased physical attributes.
Shadow then handed the notebook back to Jin, it seemed that the Spirit of the grave keeper had been removed from him when he resurrected Shadow.
Stealth didn’t really fit with his style of fighting anyway. He did wish that he still had the raise dead ability though because he would have been able to bring his brother back eventually after the ability recharged.
Shadow closes his eyes and summons the armaments of the void. His robe, daggers, and mask became covered in what looked like waves of pitch-black darkness.
Jin looked at him in awe, “That looks baddass.”
Shadow was covered head to toe in a shroud of darkness and black smoke emanated from his body.
Jin showed him the armor that he got from Shadow when he was a Devil King earlier, but he didn’t want it. The armor was heavy and would’ve interfered with how he fought. But this shroud was definitely his style, even his daggers looked like part of his being.
All that Jin could see was the small section of shadows face where his eyes were.
Shadow then pointed at Jin and silently laughed at his outfit. While he did have the invisible armor, Jin still wore the same clothes he’d always worn underneath. The same black hoodie and grey pants. Jin agreed that Shadows armor was way cooler, but this was more his style. Jin knew that outside of the armor he had on now, nothing was more durable than his own body at this point. Nothing short of a celestial weapon or a Devil King would be able to harm them.
They looked around at their Fallen army that was now full of about 50 shark Devils and 9 of the Octopus Devils, the rest had been slain in the battle. It seemed that Shadow could only resurrect them once and when they died again, they were gone for good.
Jin and Shadow divided into 2 attack forces, Jin went by himself, and Shadow took his minions with him.
Jin proceeded up the coast and engaged the hordes of Devils while keeping his back to the ocean. He would attack wait for them to pile up, surrounding him and then with a single strike he was killing 10 at a time with a column of white Celestial Hellfire. Then their exploding bodies were killing the other Devils around them.
Meanwhile Shadow went around the Devils as they converged on Jin and launched an attack from behind them. Fallen attacked the Devils, slashing and stabbing while pushing them towards Jin. Shadow himself turned invisible and sliced up unsuspecting enemies in a matter of seconds. Blood would spray from his victim by the time he was already attacking a different Devil.
An hour had passed, and they had completely cleared the coast of hundreds of Devils, Jin rested at the ruins of a boardwalk overlooking the beach while Shadow ran around the battlefield and created more Fallen.
Their army had gone from small squads to fully fledged fighting force of over 400.
Jin was sitting at a demolished food service area that still had a few chairs and tables.
But their time to rest was cut short as strong energy filled the air and made it feel heavy. Jin jumped to his feet and stared off at the ocean, Shadow paused resurrecting the last few Fallen and did the same.
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A large tidal wave had started to form and head towards the coast, within it was a massive black silhouette with 6 glowing red eyes.
Jin teleported and grabbed Shadow then warped the 2 to higher ground as the wave crashed into the coast then flooded it.
Since the Fallen were all Hydro Devils, they emerged in troves from the waves and formed up around the Heroes.
A colossal Hydra appeared from the water towering so high that it blocked out the sun. It had 3 heads, each the size of an office building. Each head had rows of razor-sharp teeth that could be seen as it opened its mouth and let out an ear-piercing screech that sent out shockwaves that shook the world around them. The Hydras scales looked to be made of pure silver, each of its scales were like tiny shields that combined to create the ultimate armor. With each step it took out of the ocean, a crater was left behind and the world shook.
Jin and Shadow couldn’t help but tremble from the energy and bloodlust that the Hydra was emitting. Their previous victory felt hollow after seeing this beast.
There had been rumors of a Devil that protected the coast of the Devils Stronghold in Australia, but no one had ever seen it. Any aircraft or ships that got close to the continent were ever seen again.
‘To have a monster like this under its control… how powerful is the Devil Emperor?’ Jin thought as he looked at the Hydra, he never imagined that any one Devil could be so big.
“Shadow, dismiss the Fallen for now. They will just be killed in this fight and we are going to need all the help we can get to kill all the Devils throughout the country.” Jin steadied his breathing as he formulated a plan to neutralize the Hydra. But he couldn’t eliminate an instinctive feeling that was telling him to run.
Shadow recalled his forces to the Void to prevent casualties like Jin wanted.
It couldn’t have been timed more perfectly because as the Fallen vanished, the Hydra unleashed an earth-shattering blue energy blast from its heads and decimated the ground where the army was previously standing. All that was left of the area was scorched earth covered in blue flames.
Jin and Shadow used this as an opportunity to launch their own attack.
Jin summoned a storm of acid rain over the Hydra to start melting away its scales, then he called forth a pillar of Celestial Hellfire the size of a car and launched it towards the center of the Hydra Devils chest. It crashed into the Hydra and only stunned it momentarily while scorching its scales only a small amount.
Shadow had turned invisible and had begun to run up the side of the Hydra, with his boosted agility it was an easy task. In seconds he had made it to the Hydras left head and threw his daggers into each of its eyes while imbibing them with energy from the Void.
The Daggers pierced the Hydras red eyes and turned them black as they became filled with a deadly Void energy.
The head died and the other 2 heads promptly severed it from the neck up.
The head came crashing down while Shadow was still on it.
Jin teleported and pulled Shadow to safety before he was crushed under the weight of the Hydras decapitated head.
Purple blood spurted from the Hydras severed neck area and it cauterized the wound with a controlled beam of energy.
As Jin landed back on the ground with Shadow, the Hydra spun around and threw a tidal wave from the ocean with its tail.
The wave pummeled Jin and Shadow as they became forced under the highspeed waves that flooded the area. Jin was thrown into a tree and lost his grip on Shadow, who was washed away.
The Hydra continued to flood the area with its tail, Jin tried to open his eyes to find somewhere to teleport. But he was unable to focus as waves and their debris tossed him around like a ragdoll and the coast overflowed with the ocean's water.
He finally got an idea and launched a massive wave of frost. He hadn’t been able to find an appropriate use of the power gained from the Frost Dragon, but now it was perfect even if it was a risky idea.
He imbued the frost spells with Celestial energy and completely froze the ocean that was consuming the land.
The Hydras legs and tales became frozen and stuck in the iced over area. It struggled to pull its extremities and screeched again. The screech started to crack the ice.
Across from the Hydra in the frozen landscape, a pillar of fire erupted, and the ice melted around it. Jin leapt from the crater and flew into the sky with his wings of ice.
He began to fling giant spears of Celestial Hellfire at the Hydra.
The Hydra was unable to move and was stuck in the ice desperately trying to move. It launched beams of energy at Jin.
Jin managed to land a spear through the mouth of the Hydra's left head, it pierced through the Hydras head killing it. Now it was down to one.
But the energy beam from its head directly impacted Jin and sent him crashing into the ice below.
The Hydra broke free from the ice and rushed towards Jin.
Jin laid completely unconscious on the ground below, the energy beam would have completely atomized him had it not been for his armor. But the impact of the blast had still rattled his brain knocking him out, while also covering him in minor scrapes and cuts. His regeneration ability was unable to activate after the vast amount of energy he had unleashed in his powers. Even the acid storm that he summoned had faded away.
Jins body and spirit still had not completely adapted to the toll that using Celestial energy took.
The Hydra prepared to stomp on Jin, but before it was able, a bloody and beaten Shadow reappeared on the Hydras remained head. He held Jin’s toxic sword in his right hand, his left arm was completely broken and swinging uncontrolled from his body. His left eye had been blinded by the blood that poured down from a cut across his forehead.
Shadow plunged the sword into the top of the Hydras head and imbued it with energy from the Void. The Hydras eyes turned black, and a green mist emerged from its mouth.
The Hydra thrashed violently and threw Shadow from its head, crashing back down to the ground.
As the poisoned energy turned the Hydras blood toxic it continued screeching and launching energy blasts wildly in every direction.
Shadow got up and limped for cover then summoned 2 Octopus Fallen and commanded one to grab Jin and the other to carry him far from the Hydra while they waited for it to die.
The Fallen found Jin and threw him over its shoulder, it then returned to Shadow. They had taken cover in the entrance to a city that had been razed.
10 more minutes passed before the Hydra succumbed to its wounds, a large blue stream of energy flowed from it and into Jin. Shadow attempted to cut it, but his blade just went through the energy. He watched with concern briefly then went back to watching the horizon for more Devils.
Jin regained consciousness, his head was pounding, and he squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light around him. He saw Shadow sitting across from him looking half dead and keeping watch over the coast.
Shadow had recalled the Fallen after the Hydra finally died, they were patrolling the area and killing any Devils that they ran into.
Shadow noticed Jin was awake and gave him a thumbs up.
“I take it that means we won.” Jin let out a sigh of relief and no longer looked so tense.
Jin summoned a small acid rain cloud over the 2 of them and imbued it with Celestial energy. The rain slowly healed them, he learned that the acid he creates is only hostile towards those he wants to harm or wanted to harm him, but it heals everyone else.
It wasn’t immediate, but they were good as new after about an hour. The rain didn’t drench them, but instead imbued into them and they remained dry.
While they were waiting, Shadow kept pointing at the dead Hydra in the distance then at Jin. It was like a game of charades as Jin tried to figure out what he was trying to tell him. At first Jin thought Shadow was making fun of him for getting knocked out by the Hydra. Then he understood that Shadow wanted to know why its energy had flown u to him.
Jin opened the notebook and showed Shadow.
Spirit of the Giant Hydra
A warped being created by the Devil emperor from the spirits of a Water Dragon and Giant Mage. The abomination was imbued with a small amount of Celestial energy from the former Gods. Grants increased Celestial Energy and the ability to fuse known magic.
‘With more Celestial energy I’m one step closer to becoming unstoppable and beating the Incarnates.’
Shadow nodded as he read the entry, then scratched the back of his head and shrugged.
“What, are you annoyed because you didn’t get anything for beating the Hydra?” Jin joked with him.
Shadow pretended to wipe away a tear.
Jin smiled, “Don’t worry, we still have more to gain from this.” He looked at the Hydras corpse and teleported to it with Shadow, then he used the Goddess of Creation’s blessing to turn the Hydra into an artifact.
Normally Jin would only be able to create a few artifacts from Devils and most of the time they were of no use to him. But the Hydra was turned into a full set of items. Shadow and Jin piled them up and checked the notebook for their enchantments.
The first was a set of scaled armor that resembled a miniature version of the Hydras scales.
Hide of the Hydra
Armor made from the Legendary Hydra that negates all damage received by 1/3 and shields against 1 fatal strike a day.
Shadow took the armor and equipped it, then fusing it with the void and the entry changed and now said ‘Negates all damage by 2/3 and shields against 2 fatal strikes a day.’
“This is perfect for you; your body isn’t as strong as mine but with this armor we’re now equal when it comes to our defenses.” Jin said as they checked the next item, a silver ring with a purple gem in the middle.
Hydra’s Vitality
This ring is imbued with the blood of the Hydra, the wearer may use 3 healing spells a day. The strength of the spells depends on the wearer's affinity for magic.
Jin offered it to Shadow but he refused knowing that this ring would be much stronger when used by him.
Jin now had a wide Arsenal of spells he could use and being able to fuse his spells now made the potential combinations seemingly limitless.
The next item was a shimmering silver necklace.
Necklace of Draconic Speed
Grants the wearer the speed of the dragons and they can double their speed at will. Once a day they may also triple it for 3 minutes.
Shadow took the necklace.
The last item was another ring. This one was golden with some kind of runic inscription.
Engraved Ring of the Giant Mage
This ring belonged to an ancient Mage of the Giants. The engraving in this ring furthers the wearers understanding of the magic arts and increases their spell strength by double.
Jin took the ring.
With their latest items, they had elevated to the next level. Should they encounter another enemy as strong as the Hydra the fight would be much easier.
Shadow pointed at Jin and punched his fists together.
Jin let out an amused laugh and looked at Shadow in the eyes. “You want to see who’s stronger now?”
Shadow held out Jin's toxic sword and planted it in the ice-covered ground.
“Alright, deal. Whoever wins gets to keep the sword.”
Shadow unsheathed his daggers and Jin summoned a white sword of flame in each hand. His flames were even more altered, they were pure white fire before, now the center of them was a black flame that silhouetted the type of weapon he was using, and they were covered in white flames.